BELONGING
follows Sasha’s life in Paris as she straddles her French and Chinese identities. Sasha is a second generation immigrant and her family is from Wenzhou, China. While certainly French, Sasha also has a fierce longing to express her Chinese self. As she sifts through the contradictions between her identities to discern what is truly her own, her journey is one of tension and ambivalence. These photos explore Sasha’s quest for belonging, accompanied by her thoughts.
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Being a child of immigrants shapes you in a shameful way. What my parents kept of their culture, the bits here and there that they latch on very strongly because those are the only things they are left with — traditions. With all these multiple pressures, I’m trying to build myself no matter what, trying to live and create a real identity of my own, to customise everything to fit me. So sometimes I also latch onto everything Chinese, trying to reconnect with the motherland. I need to feel Chinese.
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Being Chinese and French, French and Chinese. I am now more confident to say that I am both 100 percent. My identity is mixed, « métisse » as you would say in French even though the connotations are not the same.